Susan and I were invited to David and Tricia Grodin's home along with about 16 other people for a BYOB zinfandel tasting (this was prior to David and Tricia joining Twits). We checked in our bottle (a 1998 Ridge Paso Robles) when we arrived and the host's brother (who did not participate in the tasting) wrapped and numbered the bottle carefully after writing down pertinent information (producer, vintage, appellation, vineyard designation [if any], alcohol content, and price).

Everyone also brought something to munch.  Trying to match zin was our goal. Susan and I decided on Aidell's smoked turkey & chicken with sundried tomatoes sausages, browned, and then slices of red bell pepper sauteed in the same pan. She made up a bleu cheese/garlic/creamcheese "schmear" ringed with grape tomatoes to go on sliced sourdough baguette. This was a big hit.

Oh yeah.  The wines. At my suggestion, the 15 wines were broken up into three flights of five (there was a 16th wine, a white zin, that was brought as a joke by a couple who did bring a nice red zin as well, but everyone knew it was a white zin because the bottle's neck wasn't tinted at all). 

The Ranking Scheme
For the sake of clarity, I will post the wines in the order they ranked, from first to last, by the group's concensus. I will show both the average score of the entire group and my own score for any given wine. Everyone used a 100-point scoring scale (a la Parker).  For example, 84.55/82 would be the average score (84.22) followed by my own whole-number score (82). I will provide my personal tasting notes for each wine. These were all tasted blind, so there was no bias based on labels, producer, etc.

THE WINES

Rank: 1. 1997 Claudia Springs, Mendocino CO, Rhodes Vineyard, 16.9% alc.
Deep ruby red. Big nose with loads of fruit and black pepper, with a hint of horehound candy. More candy on the palate, along with sweet red onion, a very smooth mouthfeel...very "different" and very good. 89.33/90

Rank: 2. 1997 Markham, Napa Valley, 14.6% alc.
Deep ruby. A "happy nose"; makes me smile! Pepper and alcohol with zin fruit on the nose and on the palate, right up front, very fruit forward, velvety mouthfeel.  89.08/90 

Rank: 3. 1998 Cigarzin (No appellation or alc. content given)
Light ruby color. Full raspberry nose. On palate, a bit of a fruit bomb but it works... candy apple, pepper, good backbone, well balanced, barely any oak. 88.2/92

Rank: 4. 1998 Ridge Paso Robles 14.9% alc.
Dark ruby. Nose is closed; reticent (Young? Bottle shocked?). A bit hot on the palate, good flavors but a very youthful-tasting zin. 85.46/86

Rank: 5. 1996 Mazzocco, Dry Creek Valley (alc. n/a)
Light ruby. Big whiff of oak on top, indefinite fruit underneath. Decent amount of fruit on palate, but thin and hot. The tannins carry this wine -- overoaked. 85.18/79

Rank: 6. 1997 Story, Amador County, "Hillside Select" 16.5% alc.
Dark ruby. Smells a bit like latex paint with prunes. Huge wine, stemmy and overoaked, extreme extraction. 84.64/81

Rank: 7. 1997 Rodney Strong, Sonoma County, "Old Vines" 13.5% alc.
Medium ruby. Smells of barrel toasting and oak -- difficult to find the fruit on the nose. More youthful and aggressive tannins and briar than fruit on the palate, bit of black pepper, leathery mouthfeel. 84.08/81

Rank: 8. 1997 Tria (no appellation or alc. given)  Note: First wine tasted.
Medium ruby. Berry and spice on the nose. Plum, pepper, spice with fruit almost over the top. Long finish. 82.73/86

Rank: 9. 1996 Grgich Hills, Sonoma County 13.7% alc.
Deep ruby. Slight latex paint smell at first, then resolved into fruit with slight (pleasant) barrel toast. Sour cherry, plum and blackberry that lingers, with firm tannins. I like this one! 82.54/95

Rank: 10. 1998 Forchini, "Papa Nonno" 15.5% alc. 
Medium light ruby. GREAT *** nose! Zin and black pepper! Oak in balance with fruit, acid, alcohol. Velvety mouthfeel, firm tannins. Good wine! 82.00/91

Rank: 11. 1998 Robert Biale "Appellation Series" (no other info given) 13.8% alc.
Dark ruby. Tar and moldy cellar on nose. On palate, oak and cedar, strong bitter and vegetative flavors, odd and 
uncharacteristic flavors for a zin. 81.67/72

Rank: 12. 1998 Talus, (no appellation), 13.0% alc. 
Medium ruby. Faint, closed -- burnt rubber, berry. Sour cherry, restrained bitter note, only fair. 80.64/76

Rank: 13. 1995 Van Aspern (no appellation given), 14.2% alc.
Medium ruby. Weird nose, like canned fruit salad with cedar. Tastes of green peppers, a bit of cherry, with light tannins. 80.23/82

Rank: 14. 1997 Murphy Goode, Sonoma CO, 14.5% alc. 
Light ruby with hint of garnet at edges. A thin and bitter fruit bomb, overoaked to the max, mild tannins but vegetative, cranberries, mild blk pepper. Not very nice. 80.07/72

Rank: 15. 1998 Mirassou (no appellation provided), 13.0% alc. 
Medium ruby. Nose is grassy, odd for zin. Tastes of too much oak but with raspberry, firm tannins and good acid yet a bit thin. 78.93/77

I won't include the Rank 16 wine since it was a Sutter Home white zin that virtually everyone dumped the moment they saw pink in their glass. :o)

Some of these wines were completely new to me.

-- Tom R